Discover Scotland's secret garden in a small Fife village
Reclaiming the space was, at first, more like archaeology than gardening and it was several years before a set of steps that would have once provided access to a now-demolished church were discovered beneath more than a century's worth of fallen leaves.
In the area where the garden slopes away from the house towards the Saline Burn, nettles and hogweed were strimmed to the ground, old stumps were removed and newspaper and mulch was used to suppress weeds before the ground was replanted with sorbus and birch.
There's plenty of colour (Image: Discover Gardens)
Today two bridges provide access to 20 acres of oak, ash, birch and holly on the far side of the burn. This is naturally-regenerating woodland and apart from occasional clearing to allow paths to remain open, it remains much the same today as it was 10,000 years ago.
The season at Kirklands starts with snowdrops, before wild garlic and bluebells take over the show. There is an abundance of fritillaries and trilliums, while hundreds of candelabra primulas, all grown from seed, flower in late spring in boggy areas. Dozens of rhododendrons have replaced those that were lost
The south-facing walled garden has been terraced to make vegetable production easier on this sloping site. Heritage apples grow here and edibles thrive in raised beds, while elsewhere in the garden a polytunnel has been added in order to extend the growing season. Close to the house there are formal borders edged with box hedging and filled with summer flowers.
From the garden there are views towards Saline Hill and the Ochils to the south while, on clear days, Ben Lomond is visible in the distance.
The garden is open on weekends through the summer months, but for more than 30 years the Harts have also been opening the garden to the public in aid of Scotland's Gardens Scheme and this year's open day, on Sunday, August 17, will help to support both Saline and Steelend gardening club and the local flower show, which takes place at the start of September.
Culross Palace (Image: Newsquest)
Fife is home to many interesting gardens and ten miles south from Saline, on the northern shore of the River Forth, is Culross Palace, a restored medieval merchant's house and behind its ochre-coloured walls is a recreation of the 17th century garden that once flourished here.
The plants are all those that would have been familiar at that time, including herbs with culinary and medicinal properties and heritage fruit trees.
Old-fashioned flowers, willow hurdle dividers, paths made from crushed shells and the geometric lay-out of the beds all add the authentic feel of the garden, which in summer is filled with the scent of old roses.
Details
Open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 2pm - 4.30pm until 30 September
Tickets: £5/children free
Contact
Peter@kirklandsgarden.co.uk
07787 115477
www.kirklandsgardens.co.uk
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
3 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
I retook a GCSE maths test 10 years on - here's how I fared
An important thing to note since I took my GCSEs is that the grading system has changed, going from A* - G to 9 - 1, in 2017. With this, (at least I think anyway), the tests have gotten harder. The grade changes took place in 2017 (Image: Newsquest) Not to brag or anything, but I did get an A* in my GCSE maths exam, but can this be replicated 10 years on with no revision? Well, here is my attempt at resitting a GCSE maths exam, and finding out just how much I remember from my time at secondary school. How did I get on resitting a GCSE maths exam 10 years later? Edexcel was my exam board back in the day, god, that makes me sound old, but this meant that I went with the same when choosing a past paper. There are plenty of past papers to choose from online, which is useful for current students revising ahead of their own exams. I decided to go with the higher paper (as that is what I sat) from last year, May 2024. The paper is an hour and 30 minutes long, so I gave myself that amount of time to see how far I could get... Spoiler: it didn't matter. Can I resit my GCSEs or A Levels? And through the lack of having a proper calculator, I opted for a non-calculator exam. So there we were, spending my Saturday afternoon sitting a GCSE maths exam, is there a better way to use your time? The timer had started, and I felt as ready as I ever would be. Turning to question one, it reads as follows: Here are the first four terms of an arithmetic sequence. 1 5 9 13 Find an expression, in terms of n, for the nth term of this sequence. Easy enough, work out the difference between each number, which in this case is 4, and then figure out the difference between that number and the first in the sequence, which is -3. Question 1 and my workings out (Image: Newsquest) 4n - 3 is the answer, and we're feeling good. Now I won't go through every question, but you can view the full paper here. Questions that followed included topics such as fractions, area, line graphs, ratio, simultaneous equations and algebra. Up until question 14, I felt good, and was confident I'd done ok, and then it all went downhill. From working out the sector of a circle in pi and rationalising denominators, to volume and more complex algebraic equations, I was struggling. An algebra question I could not answer (Image: Newsquest) And I'm not afraid to admit it, from question 14 to 23, which was the final one, you could count the marks I achieved on one hand... What grade did I get on my GCSE maths exam retake? So, after totalling up all my marks, you may be shocked to find out that I would've actually gotten an A grade. I got 49/80 overall, which is a 7 in the current grading system. There were three higher papers in 2024, one non-calculator and two calculator, of which I took the first one. I divided each mark by three to get an average for each paper. The grade boundaries for the 2024 Edexcel higher papers are as follows: Max mark - 240 9 - 197 (66 marks per paper) 8 - 167 (56 marks per paper) 7 - 137 (46 marks per paper) 6 - 105 (35 marks per paper) 5 - 73 (24 marks per paper) 4 - 42 (14 marks per paper) 3 - 26 (9 marks per paper) Overall, I was delighted with how I got on, and I reckon, dare I say it, an A* was not a fluke and could be replicated with a bit of revision. I managed to remember a fair amount and have educated guesses on others, which in the end helped me still come out with a great result. Recommended reading: But that was not the only thing I came away with from this experience, with the last third of the paper giving me nothing but a headache. So it is something I don't plan on repeating anytime soon... For all of you getting your GCSE results this week, good luck!
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
Serious nuclear incident took place at Faslane naval base
Any incidents involving incidents, inspections, and regulatory activities at the base are recorded by the Ministry of Defence. Nuclear Site Event Reports (NSERs) are graded on a scale from Category A through D to 'below scale' which indicates an incident which doesn't meet any of the prior categories. Read More: The Ministry of Defence defines a Category A event, the most serious, as being one which carries an "actual or high potential for radioactive release to the environment". Figures released show there was a Category A event at Faslane in the period between January 1 and April 22 this year. The Ministry of Defence did not respond to a request for comment as to the nature of the incident. It is therefore unknown whether radiation was leaked into the environment or whether there was merely a high risk of that transpiring. The incident is the second in the space of two years, with a 2023 incident at Faslane also given the worst risk rating. Previously there had not been a Category A incident at HMNB Clyde since 2008. In total there were five Category B, 29 Category C and 71 Category D incidents at Faslane between April 22, 2024 and the same date this year. At Coulport there were no Category A incidents but 13 Category C incidents did occur along with 34 Category D. A submarine at Faslane (Image: Newsquest) The news comes after the Ministry of Defence admitted that Loch Long, where RNAD Coulport is located, is contaminated with radioactive waste. Established during the Cold War, it is used as the storage and loading facility for the Trident programme. Radioactive material was released into Loch Long after the Royal Navy failed to adequately maintain the network of 1,500 water pipes on the base. A major leak in 2019 saw water contaminated with radioactive tritium discharged directly into the loch. SNP Depute Leader Keith Brown MSP said: 'Nuclear weapons are an ever-present danger and this new information is deeply worrying. 'With repeated reports of serious incidents at Faslane and now confirmed radioactive contamination in Loch Long, it's clear there is a direct threat to our environment, our communities, and our safety. 'Worse still, the Labour government is refusing to provide any details about the Category A incident, or the full extent of the contamination, including who could potentially be affected. 'While Westminster ploughs billions of public money into weapons of mass destruction, the SNP is focused on building a better Scotland. But only with independence, can we scrap Trident, clean up the mess it has left behind, and ensure this kind of reckless nuclear policy is never forced on Scotland again.' The Trident system is designed to act as a deterrent to other nations with nuclear capability, as a first strike on the UK would not eliminate the ability to strike back given some of the country's weapons are continuously at sea. Four Dreadnought submarines, built at a cost of £7.75bn each, will replace the current Vanguard ships and are scheduled to begin entering service in the early 2030s. The concept of a nuclear deterrent is based on the doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), which holds that no country possessing the weapons of mass destruction would use them against another nuclear-armed state because both would be destroyed the fighting. At least one Vanguard submarine is kept on patrol at all times, carrying up to 16 of more than 100 nuclear missiles in stock. The Trident missiles are leased from the United States, with much of the technology used in the system provided directly by the Pentagon. The Ministry of Defence has been approached for comment.
Glasgow Times
6 days ago
- Glasgow Times
13 nostalgic photos of Glasgow's lost 'high school of science'
Allan Glen's School was the bright idea of a man who valued education and wanted his legacy to be a place that would give young people a secure future. Allan is buried in the Southern Necropolis in the Gorbals. The cemetery's heritage guide reveals that Allan was born the son of George and Marion in 1772 and the family farmed the lands of East Cowglen and Maudlans near Pollokshaws. In 1810, after serving an apprenticeship to a carpenter, Allan set up a business as a builder. He was one of the first members of the Unitarian Church, which was established in 1808, the heritage guide explains. The school's new teaching laboratory in 1964 (Image: Newsquest) 'Unitarians attached great value to education and Allan Glen reflected this in the foundation of his school,' it says. 'When he died in 1850, at the age of 78, he left money for two charity schools, one for boys and one for girls. 'They were to be non-sectarian and industrial, meaning they should provide a general basic education as well as the skills on which future trades might be built.' Unfortunately, there was not enough money for the girls' school, but the boys' school was built on ground Allan owned at the corner of North Hanover Street and Cathedral Street in Townhead. The school opened in 1853 and became Glasgow's foremost science and engineering secondary, with boys having to sit an entrance examination to get in. It forged close ties with Anderson College, which became Strathclyde University, and developed as a centre of excellence for science and technical education, often referred to as the "High School of Science". It charged nominal fees for those who could afford it, but provided bursaries, including clothing for those unable to meet the cost, and free classes for those showed ability but could not afford to pay. During its centenary in 1953, this photo of 'Mr AA Smith' delivering an engineering lesson was taken. Science class in 1953 (Image: Newsquest) Twenty years later, in 1973, it merged with City Public School at its Montrose Street campus and in 1989, Allan Glen's closed for good. The original buildings on Cathedral Street were demolished in the 1960s - here, in 1964, our photographers captured men on an outside wall during the works. Workmen during demolition of Allan Glen's School (Image: Newsquest) The name lives on in Allan Glen's Rugby Football Club, which plays on pitches which opened in Bishopbriggs in 1923. BA Robertson in 1980 (Image: Newsquest) Former pupils include musician BA Robertson; Whisky Galore actor Duncan Macrae; artist and sculptor George Wyllie; Sir James McNeill, managing director of John Brown and Co and designer of the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth; and Lord Alexander Todd, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, whose love of the subject was sparked in childhood. (Image: Newsquest) His work laid the foundations for research to establish DNA's general formula. (Image: Newsquest) This photos shows two young pupils, Julian Marks and Jas Munn, in the science class, in 1953. (Image: Newsquest) Clay models were the topic on the go in pottery class at Allan Glen's in January 1953. Reciting poetry in the English class (Image: Newsquest) A young pupil recites poetry in the English class. (Image: Newsquest) Schoolboys and former pupils of Allan Glen's School get some help carrying a boat they made in 1952. (Image: Newsquest) One of the school's most famous pupils was architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He attended Allan Glen's from 1880, when he was 12, until around 1883, when he left to begin his training as an architect at Anderson College. (Image: Newsquest) A few years ago, Allan Glen's Membership Secretary Mike McCreery came into possession of the oldest known school photograph, dated as having been taken in 1880, which had notes attached to it which suggest that a young Charles Rennie Mackintosh was present in the photograph. The University of Dundee's Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) conducted a facial recognition comparison study to try and identify a young Charles Rennie Mackintosh within the school photo. While the results were not conclusive, many people believe this is a young Mackintosh. (Image: Newsquest) It wasn't just scientists and engineers that were produced by Allan Glen's School. Hollywood star Dirk Bogarde (born Derek Niven van den Bogaerde) who was famous for films such as The Blue Lamp and Doctor in the House, attended the school in the mid-1930s. At the time, the English-born actor was living with a well-to-do aunt and uncle in Bishopbriggs and he admits in his autobiography it was not the happiest time of his life.
